I ran into this little snag while I was in the middle of writing a fan-fic. There's only so much I can recall of the series without rewatching it for however long it would take to find out what the answer is, and this would probably be a rather small detail within the context in which it is used besides. So, I'm hoping that someone with a greater knowledge and/or memory would be able to answer the following (so I can avoid an untold amount of hours researching): does anyone ever say "horse," or is it always "pony?" (I apologize if I got the wrong forum, but I looked around, read the letter of the law -- as best as I understood them -- for the likeliest of places to post this, but nothing really seemed all that close to being suited for information-gathering than this forum.)
Thanks. I don't really pay attention to the songs, so it's no surprise I didn't remember that. Its usage is kind of odd, though. While the shadow in the background suggests a grown pony, saying "pony" seems to suffice for that; it's almost like they're referring to another race or species. Kind of like how we'd say we have a heart of a lion, rather than a heart of an adult.
There are several equine species in the FiM universe. In addition to the various pony subspecies (e.g. Unicorn, Pegasus, etc), there are zebras, donkeys, and horses. There are also mules, but those are technically hybrids.
When you say horses, though, do you mean a type of equine other than the rest mentioned? Because anything in the equidae family can be referred to as a horse, as far as I know, which is why the use of it in the song is weird. Not only because they almost exclusively refer to themselves as ponies at any other time, but because they're already horses. Unless there's some distinct difference between ponies and horses being made, in which case I have to wonder where the horse horses are. XD;;
Equestrian ponies refer to themselves as "ponies," and I have no reason to doubt their taxonomic appraisal of themselves. However, in the episode "Magic Duel," a pair of delegates from the country of Saddle Arabia visit Ponyville. As they are clearly quite different in appearance from Equestrian ponies, I think it's safe to assume that they're horses. This is further evidenced by the fact that "Arabian" is a breed of horse.
It's not safe to assume. I don't even think that a reference to a type of horse, outside of the context, qualifies the fact as circumstantial evidence. If the "horse" in question is represented by the shadow cast during that song, then there's no correlation between it and those delegates, because their body types are different. Like a dummy, I just now thought of looking for transcripts, and learned that they exist. I found some more odd usages, like "hold your horses," and "horse-drawn" carriage instead of pony-drawn. In the latter case, I don't see why the more popular "pony" isn't used; and while the former doesn't seem odd, the nature of its etymology (in relation to humans) really makes it curious how the expression came to be for the ponies. There was also an instance where Twilight turned four mice into the more typical horse shapes that we're familiar with (aside from lingering rodent traits), instead of doing the obvious thing and asking other ponies for help, which just confuses me. I'm beginning to think that these are either cases where the writers were lax, or it was meant to convey something to the audience that only makes sense in that context, rather than in the context of the show.
Not enough evidence? I have more. Note the Arabian horse, with its distinctive head shape. Now note the Saddle Arabians, who share the distinctive head shape. There's also the fact that their legs are much skinnier than those of Celestia, a pony of similar size. All Equestrian ponies have similarly shaped legs, in fact. The final, and perhaps most noticeable, difference between Saddle Arabians and Equestrian ponies is that Saddle Arabians don't have cutie marks. Also, the bit with the mice was a reference to the movie Cinderella.
That's a logical fallacy: you're jumping to the conclusion that they're called Horse because of their differences from Equestrian ponies -- and because they're based on an actual horse breed in reality, which is irrelevant. Are they ever called Horse? Because, aside from that, the only possible reference that we have to a Horse (so far as we've found, unless the other usages of "horse" bear a significant enough meaning) is that shadow, which was mainly what I was addressing, and -- like I said -- that does not match the shape of the Arabian. That doesn't necessarily mean that those from Saddle Arabia can't possibly be called Horse (for instance, if it was a general term for non-Equestrian ponies), but it doesn't give the idea that they are Horse any credence. I knew that it was a reference to Cinderella, but it confuses me because I see no sensible reason for it to be done. After all, it's pretty normal for other ponies to pull things around, and doesn't seem odd to trouble someone with the task. Anyway, since we're going off-topic, and I have the information that I need (which I get to have fun figuring out how to handle), that'll be it from me.
Just remember an important rule of MLP fanfiction: The Canon Hierarchy - Show Canon Word of God Comic Canon Word of St. Paul Word of Dante Fanon Headcanon
I have more experiences than I should just correcting people concerning a part of what they're reading being canon, not something I made up. Personally, it'd be a little more disheartening if I encounter that with the MLP: FIM fandom, since -- as opposed to another series I've worked with -- I don't really consider myself a fan of this series. It wouldn't be surprising, though, since it's common for one's feelings to distort the truth.
